Often, when considering a wells surface location, sometimes referred to as pads or a platform, the need for a location to be manually adjusted to a more optimal location is often recognized but difficult to visualize. Further, more than any other type of well, horizontal wells, sometimes referred to as laterals, need to be planned at the reservoir level with knowledge of where the surface pad will be located. Likewise, the location and spacing of the horizontal wells must be taken into account when planning the positions of these surface pads. In addition to the well positions, spacing, length and the like, boundaries and hazards must also be taken into account when positioning the surface pads. Hazards can come in the form of subsurface hazards such as faults or shallow gas, or surface hazards such as roads, buildings, bodies of water, pipelines, railroads, environmentally sensitive areas and the like. In addition to surface hazards, the terrain itself is not always conducive to drilling. It might be too high, or contain too much slope so that the site preparation becomes too expensive.
Once an optimal surface pad location is determined using conventional techniques such as, for example, automated platform positioning techniques, the current surface pad location may need to be validated and/or the suitability of another surface pad location may need to be determined for various reasons. Under such circumstances, it is often difficult to understand the basis for current surface pad location compared to other potential locations, particularly when it was determined using an automated platform-positioning technique, and it is manually intensive and time consuming to determine whether other potential locations are suitable.